Financial Analyst III

Financial Payment Accuracy and Recovery Analyst III

The Payment Accuracy and Recovery Analyst is responsible for ensuring that vendor and service provider invoices are paid accurately and in strict accordance with contractual terms. This role combines strong financial analytics capabilities with deep contract comprehension to evaluate historical and current payments, identify overpayments or improper charges, and determine liability ownership. The position plays a critical role in protecting company financial integrity by recovering funds where payments should not have occurred and by designing sustainable process improvements to prevent future invoice inaccuracies. This role operates at the intersection of Finance, Commercial Business Development, Legal/Contracts, Commercial and Operations, Business Improvement, and Accounts Payable, serving as a subject matter expert in invoice accuracy, contract compliance, and payment risk mitigation.

Job Responsibilities

• Perform post-payment invoice audits by validating charges against contracts, rate sheets, service agreements, amendments, and commercial terms to ensure billing accuracy and compliance.
• Analyze complex financial data to identify payment issues and liability including duplicate payments, incorrect rates, unauthorized charges, billing errors, and determining appropriate ownership of invoice responsibility.
• Quantify and report financial impact by documenting overpayments, recovery opportunities, and exposure, and preparing clear audit summaries, recovery justifications, and executive-level reporting with recommended actions.
• Analyze and remediate payment errors by identifying process breakdowns, control gaps, system or master data issues, and conducting root cause analysis to determine underlying drivers of invoice inaccuracies.
• Design and implement preventative solutions including improved processes, controls, validations, and system or automation enhancements to eliminate recurring payment errors.
• Institutionalize best practices by partnering cross-functionally (Finance, AP, IT, Operations) to deploy standard work, SOPs, playbooks, and training materials that ensure sustained compliance and accuracy.
• Proactively identify emerging risks related to vendor billing practices and contract execution.
• Lead overpayment recovery efforts by coordinating with vendors, suppliers, and internal stakeholders, and preparing formal recovery claims, credits, offsets, and dispute documentation.
• Manage and track recovery performance by monitoring progress, aging, success rates, and financial outcomes through resolution and closure.
• Support dispute resolution and negotiations by escalating unresolved issues as needed and providing fact-based financial and contractual analysis to drive recovery.
• Translate contract terms into clear, auditable payment rules and decision frameworks for use by Accounts Payable and operational teams.
• Ensure contract standards are consistently applied across vendors and business units.

Required Skill Set

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, or Business
• Legally authorized to work in the job posting country
• 5+ years of experience in financial analysis, invoice auditing, recovery analytics, or payment integrity roles
• Advanced financial analysis skills with strong attention to detail and accuracy.
• Experience working with ERP systems (e.g., SAP) and invoice processing platforms.
• Ability to translate complex contractual language into clear financial and operational rules.

Preferred Skill Set

• Railroad acumen, invoicing, and processing understanding.
• Proven ability to work with large, complex data sets to identify trends, anomalies, and recovery opportunities.
• Demonstrated experience reviewing and interpreting commercial contracts and applying them to financial transactions.
• Strong proficiency in Excel (advanced formulas, pivot tables, data modeling); experience with BI tools (Power BI, Tableau) preferred.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to clearly explain complex financial and contractual issues to non-technical stakeholders.
• Proven ability to influence cross-functional teams without direct authority.
• Strong documentation and storytelling skills for audit, recovery, and executive reporting